I was invited on the Royal Navy’s newest and most powerful aircraft carrier — here’s what it was like

The arrival of HMS Queen Elizabeth has been the military story of the year in Britain – and this week was an important landmark, the moment it formally joined the Royal Navy.

The new aircraft carrier, along with its sister vessel HMS Prince of Wales, is meant to spearhead a new generation of British hard power. Business Insider was invited on board to learn more about the event – read on to find out what we saw.

December 2017 was one of the biggest months in years for the Royal Navy — its largest and most expensive ever ship formally joined the fleet.

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HMS Queen Elizabeth on the morning it was formally commissioned into the Royal Navy.

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HMS Queen Elizabeth set sail for the first time in early 2017, but had to undergo tests at sea before becoming an official part of the navy.

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HMS Queen Elizabeth sails out of Portsmouth for sea trials on October 30, 2017.

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December 6 was the day when the ship was “commissioned” in a ceremony starring Queen Elizabeth II.

Since our visit in 2017 the Queen Elizabeth has gone from strength to strength. In February she set sail again, to learn to operate with helicopters.

There were twin-engine Chinooks.

And single-engine Merlin helicopters.

When rough seas hit during the voyage, the crew (just about) managed to manoeuvre the Chinooks into the hangar via the aircraft lift.

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The mission took her off the coast of Gibraltar, a British territory in the Mediterranean which borders Spain.

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As of April 2018, HMS Queen Elizabeth was back at Portsmouth, being upgraded for the arrival of F-25B Lightning jets later a few months later. Here is one in action, with the trademark RAF logo on its nose and wings.

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And this computer-generated image shows what an F-35 could look like, with HMS Queen Elizabeth in the background, alongside HMS Prince of Wales, which is still under construction.